Dr Jacques COULARDEAU A gay film about a couple of young teenagers in high school in Los Angeles or around, who are looking for their path out of the nowhere of their present, find it and then lose it and find it again but this time the paths are branching out, one low and one high. What is so special about this one that we can't find in any other? The two young men are just so different that they should never have met and yet destiny and fate are the only trolls and gnomes who decide for us ,and in this case they bring together a brilliant student who is planning to major in art and a mediocre student who is on the swim team and needs to improve his grades in English and asks the brilliant future artist to help him with Romeo and Juliet. Fate I said. What was to happen happens of course between the art student who knows he is gay but is just waiting for an opportunity to make him come out and the swimmer who does not know he is gay but is able to fool about with the idea in private but not in public. And fate works a tragedy out of it. The art student writes the swimmer's paper on Romeo and Julier but he does not know what style is and his paper is not fake enough to go through and becomes suspicious to the English teacher who has forgotten how he went through college and university.Sure enough the swimmer's father is not very swift either and he reveals to his son his mother has been arrested and he has bailed her out in the distant Texas where she is living after her separation from her husband and where the swimmer wants to go to for college. The swimmer finishes only second in the competition that takes place on the following day of this bad news, of this second bad news. What's left then? Nothing and the artist is not strong enough to convince him that life is worth living even if swimming is his only horizon because he has just been kicked out of the swim team.The end is tragic of course and the film is clear that the two young men are confronted to such a heavy pressure in their families, at school, from the administration, from the bullies, from their parents, from the teachers and the school's principal dares to announce the bad news on the intercom at the beginning of the classes. Communication is not exactly the strong point of school officials.A jump a few years forward and the artist-to-be is an artist now, a successful one who has finally found the power of a style, of his style in his suffering, and some solace in a lover he does not seem to really see, at least not on his canvass, and the lover is hurt and suffers to only be second, though he is the real live one.The end is touching in delicate watercolors if you want, but does it bring closure to the suffering of a death caused by all kinds of bullying elements in this life that becomes lethal on blinded purpose, with the only aim of making people who are too innocent not too hide their feelings suffer as much as possible because it is funny to see a living being suffering, and if it is to death it is even more attractive. Gladiators are no longer in circuses but gladiator-games take place in our everyday environment: in the street, in the subway, at school, and in all places where it is funny for a bully to torture his or her victim, in fact where he or she can find an audience.This film is nearly refreshing in its sadness, even if I doubt a swimmer could be accepted on a swim team with shoulder long hair.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

meaninglessbark Watercolors would probably be most enjoyed by by queer guys in their young teens, they might find it meaningful. But for grownups and people who like good film Watercolors is a predictable young queer romance tragedy with acting that's slightly better than the average porn film.Watercolors looks nice, is well shot and edited, and has decent music choices. And there are some naked bits that are pleasing to see. But the story line is as subtle as being run down by a train that you're actually walking towards. Here's what happens: Sensitive not surprisingly gay artist kid meets swimmer/sidewalk surfer dude, unbelievable queer flirtation happens, believable pathetic falling in love with a dolt happens, expected queer bashing happens, extremely obvious tragic ending occurs. (And just in case you didn't suspect there'd be a tragic ending there are clues along the way that are delivered with the coyness of a hammer blow to the head.) For good measure there is a heavy sprinkling of clichés thrown in...The free-spirited art teacher who can see the amazing talent the sensitive queer kid has, the hard edged English teacher who teaches Shakespeare with FORCE, the crippled and pudgy female best friend of the queer kid who is also the photographer for the school paper, alcoholic single parents, intolerant jocks, and an angry school principal.For WTF? weirdness the story of Watercolors is book-ended between some scenes from the sensitive queer kid's adult life which are absolutely ridiculous, add nothing to the story, and are the sort of dialog and acting that should only be followed by hardcore gay sex.If you're not 15 and queer Watercolors is really best just for gawking at the cute nerdy sensitive kid and the Spicoli-esque swimmer guy who takes his clothes off a lot.

RitchCS I haven't seen this movie, but the DVD is due to arrive in the mail tomorrow. I logged onto IMDb to see what other viewers had to say. Don't EVER question why there are very few gay movies made. Every old queen and every too young adventurer always become superior critics. This is a gay movie. It does not star Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, or Sean Penn. Gays movies cannot accumulate large budgets and do the best they can with the material and cast they can find to work for free or pennies. I remember the first big studio gay movie, "Making Love" with Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson, directed by Arthur Hiller. This movie was blasted bigger than Nagasaki. It all but ended Hamlin's and Ontkean's careers. It took a quarter of a century to get the venomous taste out of the critics mouths before "Brokeback Mountain" was finally accepted. BUT, how many major gay films have been made since? The most popular gay novel in the world, "The Front Runner" has been sitting on some studios shelf for nearly half a century. Everyone is afraid of either making it or starring in it. Hats off to the producer of "Watercolors" for putting forth the effort. It did win two major LBGT film festival awards. BUT as another reviewer stated, the cast was excellent except for the coach. MAN! He's the reason I'm seeing the movie. Greg Louganis, not only an Olympic Champion, but a drama major. Why was his acting singled out? Couldn't that sentence have been omitted? Why must we as gays, destroy our own culture...music, theatre, movies??? Can't we EVER find words of praise to encourage MORE gay entertainment? Remember the old adage, "If you can't find something good to say...". I'm really looking forward to enjoying this movie tomorrow. ______________________________ addendum: I finally saw the movie this afternoon and it's haunted me the rest of the evening. One of the two leads has practically no experience at all, yet he sustained his character as a professional. I really found nothing to criticize...only words of praise and hope that this will be the first of many features by the director. The entire cast was superb. Music was expertly used. I don't watch gay porn, but I do collect gay films with good stories...THIS is one of the best. It ranks high with "Latter Days" and "Shelter". Ten Stars!

JetBoy "Watercolors" played at San Diego's FilmOut today. I have to say, when we read the synopsis in the FilmOut guide, and watched the trailer, we both thought this was going to be just dreadful. We weren't sure we wanted to even sit through it. I'm so glad we did -- it would be a mistake to miss -- to our amazement, this is a terrific film! First-rate acting all around, with special note to the dad's demonic smoking, the art teacher's facial expressions, the mother's nuanced looks. The writing, while melodramatic, is well-done. Nice cinematography, with cool underwater shots of the swimmers, long shots of outdoor scenes, and so forth. The casting, for the most part, fit nicely, especially Tye as Danny. It was fun seeing Greg Louganis as the coach, although I think it would be have been terrific to cast him as the anti-swimming father.I especially liked the relationship between Danny and his mother. Very funny, touching, warm. The dad character could use more depth, but the mannerisms were nicely done. Tye as Danny looked so small and vulnerable (he's taller in real life, as we saw during the cast Q&A) and had such a perfect geek haircut.This really didn't feel like a "film festival film", although it could do with a bit more editing to tighten up some of the scenes and cut the running time by 10 or 30 minutes.